Thursday, May 13, 2010

Starting Saturday: Filling Calatrava's Chicago Spire hole

OK, on one level, this is a bit of shameless self-promotion, as I was lucky enough to serve on a jury with such great people as Jeanne Gang, Martin Felsen, Anthony Wood and Robert Somol judging the Chicago Architectural Club's Mine the Gap competition for ideas of what to do with the massive hole that is all that survives of the idea of building a 2,000 foot Chicago Spire, designed by Santiago Calatrava, that would have been the tallest occupied structure in North America.

On the other hand, however, there were well over 100 entries, from all over the world, and I can tell you quite objectively there's a wealth of great stuff. The winners will be announced on Saturday, the 15th, at a 12:00 p.m. event beginning with the jury talking about the competition and the work - you might even get to hear me justifying my advocacy of the entry with the quiet red stopper - followed by the opening of the exhibition.

The exhibition will give you a chance to see not only the winners, but a large selection of some of the most interesting other submissions, as well. The show will run only one week, May 15-21, from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the John David Mooney Foundation, 114 West Kinzie.

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